On the final Saturday of May 1900, at 11.15pm, it was reported to the Blantyre police that the manse at the Free Church on Stonefield Road had been broken into, and afterwards set on fire. It appears that the Rev. James Campbell, the minister, with his wife and some of his family, had been spending […]
In 1972 the old manse house at High Blantyre was demolished, one year short of being 200 years old. The new and current manse, a bungalow was then built and now home to Rev. Sarah Ross. The current Manse, built in 1971 and 1972, is a detached 7-apartment dwelling house with integral garage and large […]
Rev. Duncan Finlayson – b1917 – d2012. Duncan was a former minister of Stonefield Parish Church from 1944. Born in Elgin in 1917 at the end of the First World War, he was raised in Marybank and Strathpeffer. Duncan was the youngest in a family of three. His father was the factor in a local […]
Allangowan – was the name of a former house at 9 Auchinraith Road, which appears to have been constructed between 1897 and 1905. By 1905 the detached house was owned by Peter MacIntosh, then following his death between 1915 and 1920, passed to owner and occupier, Margaret MacIntosh. It sat on the south side […]
Pictured here recently in December 2014 by Robert Stewart is the Chapel House of St Josephs, or to give it it’s proper title, The St Joseph’s Presbytery. Robert’s complimentary comments regarding the aesthetics of this building and the fact that nobody appears to have written anything in detail about it, prompted me to investigate this […]
The Rev Stevenson was a persuasive man. During his time as Minister of the High Blantyre Church he left several local “monuments” to his good work and negotiation skills. During 1773, he persuaded the 39 heritors of Blantyre (prominent families who have toiled in the lands of Blantyre for more than 100 years), to construct […]
We’ve uncovered a beautiful little story set in Blantyre in the early 1820s. Here is what we found: “Old Robin was once the Minister’s man (janitor) and of course had charge of the Manse Gardens at Kirkton. But although he watched carefully against all depredators, he was a tender-hearted man, and thought it not great […]